Friday, November 30, 2018

An alien (Arthur Roberts) from a dying planet comes to Earth in search of blood to rejuvenate his race.

When the opening credits first came on, I was like, “wow this is
amazing, if the rest of the movie is half this good--” then my
eyebrow raised when I saw something very familiar. This being a Roger
Corman production, I realized that this opening was a greatest hits
reel of some of his most memorable pictures including Humanoids From
The Deep and Galaxy of Terror. It's a bit of a cheat, but it also made for one hell of an opening.

It took me a while to clock into this
movie because as it felt like two distinct sensibilities mixing together into some kind of primordial soup. First, you had the strange genre picture that would've been camp
if it wasn't played so straight. It was like John Waters – though I've
only seen like two of his movies so it's more like what I think his
movies are like – with tons of random nudity. Then put over top of
that was a weird noir where people – especially the exchanges
between Nadine (Traci Lords) and her co-worker Jeremy (Lenny Juliano) - talk like they're from
the fifties. Imagine if a bunch of topless dancers showed up to the station in the
second act of Howard Hawks' The Thing.

Traci Lords as Nadine in Not Of This Earth.

Looking up the movie afterwards –
this is definitely one I'd love to hear the commentary track – and
seeing it was a remake of Corman's own picture from 1957, it all made
sense. He & Wynorski updated the movie with an eighties aesthetic, visual effects and gratuitous T&A, but didn't change the
cadence of the dialogue. Now I get it. It's actually kind of a marvel when you take into account that
– in regular Corman fashion – the movie was shot in under twelve days. It was also helped by Chuck Cirino's score,
even if the best bits sounded like riffs off his earlier score from
Chopping Mall.

Arthur Roberts as Mr. Johnson in Not Of This Earth.

Not Of This Earth is also known for
being Lords' first non-porn role and the last picture she played in her birthday suit.
She's actually pretty good in this, but it is hard to tell sometimes
with all the abstract dialogue. Lords isn't the only familiar
face either, as Kelli Maroney from Chopping Mall shows up, as does
Roger Lodge, the guy from that Blind Date show. I'd also love to
know if there is a story why Dick Miller wasn't the vacuum salesman.
Michael DeLano did a fine job, but I couldn't help but wonder if he
wasn't a last minute replacement.

So, though Not Of This Earth may not be
the caliber of Wynorski's more appreciated works, it's still an
interesting anomaly. By the third act I was invested enough to want
to know how this crazy tale was going to finish up.

When awkward twelve-year-old Jamie (Sammy Snyders) discovers
several “Trolologs” in a hole in the forest, he goes to increasingly grisly
lengths to keep them fed.

The Pit is such a wonderfully strange movie. Having
discovered it during my video store jockey days, it’s really the gift that
keeps on giving in that not only do you have a weirdo kid – or “funny person”
as one of his tormentors calls him – who talks to his teddy bear, but also
carnivorous monsters in the woods. It’s also a bit unusual in that it’s a Canadian
production, mostly shot in Wisconsin (the interior pit sequences were done in
Toronto according to Imdb) because it’s often the other way around.

Snyders puts in a terrific off-kilter performance as Jamie
and considering how bizarre the script must have read, I’m always impressed by how much he
committed to it. It would’ve been so easy to go over the top, but he plays
everything so matter-of-fact. Sadly, The Pit was one of the last things he
did before leaving the biz.

Sammy Snyders as Jamie in The Pit

I find Jamie such an interesting subject because he’s
clearly a bit off, but not what I would consider evil in the sense we usually
see in killer kid flicks. Sure, he’s feeding people to his “pets”, but when you
take into account a good majority of the meat were either bullies or just mean
folk, it’s sometimes hard not to root for him. He’s weird as fuck to be sure
and his obsession with naked ladies probably would’ve escalated, but he ain’t
straight up Children of the Corn is what I’m saying.

Also, his babysitter Sandy (Jeannie Elias) may have left her
guide book at home. What was she was thinking when she, after being expressly
told that Jamie is susceptible to crushes, decides to a) wash Jamie’s back in
the tub and b) backpedal when she says she has a boyfriend – “Well, he isn't really what you'd call a boyfriend, he's just a friend.” WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK ARE YOU DOING?

Mind you, this ill-advised behaviour does fall in line with
the bonkers tone of the piece. Laughing
out loud as Jamie pushes an old lady in a wheelchair through a field to her
doom is inevitable, but watching him blackmail his neighbour into undressing at
her front window, not so much. I beg to differ with the Sheriff who exclaimed
he moved to this town because nothing ever happens.

If there was a critique of The Pit, it would be the pacing,
as things come in fits and starts, most noticeably when the opening sequence is
replayed (in its entirety I might add) later in the picture. It could also be
accused of going on a little too long. After the movie reaches its logical
conclusion the narrative completely abandons Jamie for like fifteen minutes,
while it turns into Humanoids From The Deep. I’m not going to complain too
much, as it was clearly an attempt to add more gore and nudity, but having a
bunch of hicks hunt down the Trolologs only served to shine a empathetic light
on them. I also want to take this opportunity to give it up for those hairy
dudes because they ruled.

I love this movie, but every time I watch it I am always left
wondering… What happened to Teddy? A throwaway scene suggested that Teddy was
actually sentient so I’ve always wondered what happened to him after Jamie left
to play with his new friend, Alicia.

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

This week's short is a terrific little tale I saw my first year as a festival screener. I've always found the phenomena of “number stations” to be extremely interesting and I love Lane & Ruckus Skye's take on it. Below is their 2015 short, The 7 Sevens.

The 7 Sevens is a perfect example of all you need to make a great film is a solid idea and a pair of really talented actors. The Skye's are currently finishing up post on the debut feature, The Reckoning.

Friday, November 16, 2018

Set in 2038, IA agent Felix Stone (Michael Paré) is sent
undercover to a remote mining colony with a bunch of convicts to investigate
some stolen shuttles filled with precious ore.

After watching Emmerich’s 1985 effort Making Contact this
summer I was kind of hoping for something equally bonkers, but somewhat
disappointingly Moon 44 was a fairly standard representation of the nineties
sci-fi that populated video store shelves around that time. I mean, the
ambition was there as the first act saw Emmerich reach for the lofty world
building heights of Blade Runner and Aliens, but it gets bogged down in its
plot. I found it often took itself too seriously, as well.

As with most direct-to-video sci-fi (it did play
theatrically overseas) it had a pretty solid cast in Paré, along with Brian
Thompson, Stephen Geoffreys (basically playing a drug dealing Evil Ed) and
Malcolm McDowell, who despite having gone grey by then still looked young as
fuck. Also, was it just me or was Leon Rippy the only one sweating profusely
throughout this movie?

Fundamentally, I thought this movie needed more dog-fighting.
By utilizing sweet practical effects, they definitely made up the best
parts of the movie. Moon 44 built to a climax where convicts were being trained
to fight incoming robot pirates and when they arrived, only Paré and Thompson
fought them – and not even together! I know I know, budgets, but imagine if
at the end of The Magnificent Seven, five of them decided to stay at the
saloon.

Michael Paré as Felix Stone in Moon 44.

Perhaps the most distressing and ill-advised part of the
movie was when it's implied that one of the navigators was raped in the shower
by a pilot. Considering that when the pilots are actually in the air,
their lives are in the hands of their navigator – in a tandem even more unclear
than the one in Pacific Rim – I really don’t think the assaulter really thought
things through. Things don’t end up well for either of them.

As far as sci-fi space mining movies go, I have to say
– and I can’t believe I am – Gary S. Tunnicliffe’s Within The Rock
is the more entertaining joint. Moon 44 was certainly watchable fare, but it’s
just a hair before Emmerich started positioning himself as the filmmaker we all
know and love/hate.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

This week I'm posting one of my favourite shorts from 2015 in Rick Spears' Black Eyes.

If you know anything about me at all, you know that this kind of stuff is my bag. Sadly, Spears has been quiet (at least according to Imdb) but at least two members of the team, Michelle Lombardi & Drew Bolduc - whom I had the pleasure of meeting during one of my trips to Bloomington - are in post production on their newest project, Assassinaut.

Friday, November 9, 2018

After undergoing experimental surgery, Rose (Marilyn
Chambers) acquires a taste for human blood for which her victims subsequently
become violent zombies.

Rabid is one of those films that so much time has passed
from when I would have first seen it that I can’t remember if I actually watched it, or just manufactured an idea of it from seeing the coverbox so much as a
kid. Considering I recalled almost nothing, I wager the latter is true. Though
Rabid is one of Cronenberg’s least talked about works, I think it’s still a
solid piece of work.

Obviously, the main talking point was the casting of porn star Marilyn Chambers (apparently a suggestion by Ivan Reitman after the
studio balked at their first choice in Texan Sissy Spacek) that I think was as
bold as it was perfect. I felt she had real screen presence in this film,
switching back and forth between innocent and predatory with ease. Her comfort level with the nudity was to be expected I suppose, but I also got the
sense she really trusted her director. I mean, can you imagine her reading the
script, “soooo I have a parasite that comes out my armpit???”

Marilyn Chambers as Rose in Rabid.

After watching Strange Shadows last week, I was surprised by
how different Montreal looked even though both these movies were filmed around
the same time. Granted, a lot of Rabid was shot at night, but I definitely felt
there was more grittiness to this one. As with most of Cronenberg joints, this had so many recognizable locations. If there’s ever a Montreal edition of
Horror Express, I hope that at least the mall and apartment complex are on the
list.

Also while watching Rabid, I couldn’t help but draw
parallels to George A. Romero’s The Crazies released a few years earlier. Not
that there was any intentional aping going on, but they did share similarities
in both pathology and escalation. It’s also clear the pair shared the
nihilistic streak that was so common during that decade, it was almost a badge
of honour.

I mentioned Rabid wasn’t as popular as some of the Baron of Body Horror's
other efforts, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments. It played to
me as an extension of Shivers, moving beyond the confined space of Starliner Island
and sweeping into the entire city of Montreal where truck drivers, pervy
moviegoers and mall Santas were all caught in the crossfire. Not to fear
though, as Cronenberg’s version of squeegee kids were there to clean up the
mess.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Last week, Canadian filmmaker Justin Harding posted his award winning short filmography on his website. I have posted his 2017 opus Latched below, but afterwards you should definitely go check out his earlier work.

I stand by my past declaration that Harding is currently the top hombre working in this medium. He has fantastic ideas, the resources and skills to execute them and his many years working in the television industry have given him to chops to churn out his projects at a break-neck pace. I have no doubts Harding will soon become a major player in the horror industry.

Monday, November 5, 2018

Hey all. Last weekend was Horror-Rama and it was a blast, as always. In addition to sharing air with genre celebrities such as Linnea Quigley, Lynn Lowry and Dee Wallace, I also came away with a pretty sweet haul.

And since it was staring me in the face all weekend, I finally broke and picked up Matthew Therrien gorgeous Suspiria print.

I'm afraid I don't have the faculties to go into depth as much as I usually would, but I can assure you that if you can make it out next year, you will not be disappointed.

Friday, November 2, 2018

A grizzled Ottawa police captain (Stuart Whitman) travels to
Montreal to investigate the death of his sister.

I first saw this film at Trash Palace many years
ago, but likely due to the PBR-induced haze remembered almost none of it. Strange Shadows is a fascinating anomaly as it was shot in Montreal by an Italian (known
for spaghetti westerns & sword of sandal pictures) aping the gritty American
cop efforts of this era. If you then throw in some giallo elements you
have yourself quite a stew.

Right of the bat I noticed the fantastic cast assembled
for this movie. In addition to Whitman, you also have Martin Landau, Tisa
Farrow and Italian production staple John Saxon, among others. While the cover
may have you believe you're in for a Wait Until Dark-style thriller, the blind
girl only briefly factors into the story. It’s actually more of an ensemble murder
mystery that in true Italian genre fashion features a revolving door of quirky
characters that come fast and furious throughout the run time.

In some markets this movie was known as Blazing Magnum, but more apt might have been Excessive Force based on main
character Tony Siatta’s policing methods. He was Dirty Harry on crack, as literally
every interaction with a suspect concluded with him pulling his badge after an
obligatory chase or fisticuffs. Perhaps the most problematic bit was when he brawled a group of transvestites during which I’m pretty sure Siatta went all Sleepaway
Camp and shoved a curling iron where the sun don’t shine.

It was this behaviour that led to the car chase scene that
this movie is best known for. It’s pretty awesome and definitely De Martino’s
attempt to one-up Bill Friedkin's The French Connection. They even did a three-car stunt that’s so
cool they showed it FOUR times!

Hilariously though, the suspect Siatti was chasing had barely any useful information and was basically one of a bunch of guys he
shook down looking for a stolen necklace.

I’m not going to lie though, the fact this was shot in Canada was of endless amusement to me. For some reason, half of Montreal looked like it was under construction and the Toronto police crime re-enactment
video was a real gut-buster. And I have to must admit the climax at the
hospital was pretty satisfying.

Shoot first...

So yeah, get past the fact that Siatta was a pretty
terrible person and this was some solid Euro-crime featuring a lot of
familiar faces.